Tuesday, 29 December 2015

I was a youthful 19.5 year old when I had my pic taken on the Rani in Hobart 1945. It is a pity being as I lost most of the contents in my personal locker in 1948 while on leave from HMS Duke of York which included said photo and many more stolen or destroyed.
It was on a Sunday January 6, 1945 in Sydney that the ship I was serving on The HMS KING George V was returning home to the UK months after the end of WW2 due to the lengthy repairs which took place in Sydney.Then finally on our way home Via Hobart Tasmania at a breakneck speed of eight knots (due to a steering defect we arrived in Portsmouth UK on March 13 , A bit bedraggled but pleased to be home after the mayhem of the Pacific war and the following months of love-ins in Sydney(Another story)

The 1945 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race was the inaugural running of the annual "blue water classic", the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. It was hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia based in Sydney, New South Wales. The race was initially planned to be a cruise planned by Peter Luke and some friends who had formed a club for those who enjoyed cruising as opposed to racing. The plan was changed, however, when a visiting British Royal Navy Officer, Captain John Illingworth, famously suggested, "Why don’t we make a race of it?"[1][2]
The inaugural race,[3] like all those that have followed, began on Sydney Harbour, at noon on Boxing Day (26 December), before heading south for 630 nautical miles (1,170 km) through the Tasman Sea, past Bass Strait, into Storm Bay and up the Derwent River, to cross the finish line in Hobart, Tasmania.
The 1945 fleet comprised 9 starters.[4] Of the 9 starters, 8 yachts completed the race. Illingworth's own vessel, Rani, won the inaugural race in a time of 6 days, 14 hours and 22 minutes.[5]
Peter Luke's record for longest-ever time to finish the course stands to this day: 11 days, 6hours, and 20 minutes.[6]

Thursday, 17 December 2015

A storm hit Sydney yesterday with wind strengths up to 212 Kls per hour . some dreadful damage occurred read about it in the Sydney Daily Telegraph on line.
Vest is not new to such phenomena having experienced a typhoon at sea off of Sakishima Gunto March 31 1945 which in fact saved our bacon and kept us the BPF out of operations for 24 hours until the yanks landed the next day on Okinawa; Easter Sunday and all fools day.The next Typhoon was in Sagami bay Japan late Aug 1945 prior to entering Tokyo bay. quite a scene with many smaller ships losing their moorings and floating around perilously. However, the worst was yet to come when in 1962 living with my family of wife and three sons in the suburb of Laichicok New territories Hong Kong, the epicentre of Typhoon Wanda the mother of all typhoons arrived over the colony. I leave out my personal experiences because they would not match the horror and suffering of others at the time of this tragedy. Wikki will explain it better.

Typhoon Wanda was the most intense tropical cyclone on record in Hong Kong. It was the 59th disturbance in the record-breaking 1962 Pacific typhoon season, forming in August east of the Philippines. Typhoon Wanda reached peak winds of 175 km/h (110 mph) in the South China Sea, and it made landfall on Hong Kong on September 1, producing gusts of 261 km/h (161 mph) which, in combination with a high storm surge, damaged thousands of huts and left 72,000 people homeless. Wanda left a total of 434 deaths, and it is estimated that an identical typhoon striking today would cause HK$2.6 billion ($335 million USD) in losses.

Wednesday, 16 December 2015

Like the old song went, "dont have any more MissuS Moore", it is now a stark fact that Sydneysiders have reached their peak of discontent and are still maintaining the rage.
Todays statement from this blinkered Mare AKA the Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore , will have enraged most people, only a person devoid of tact with the brain of a blind rocking horse would claim the Lindt Cafe siege in 2014 was not terrorism.
The whole world heard of this atrocity in grim detail which was committed by a Muslim person who was declaed insane, I would believe that anyone blowing themselves to smithereens or engaging in a suicidal shoot out would have to be likened to a headless chook or a Lord Mayer.

Question . "Has the title 'Lady Mayoress' been dropped for the blokie title Mayor, or was it chosen to suit her likely differing gender " ?

Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.

About Me

Ardent family orientated bloke,love my family lots.
Love Australia my Beautiful adopted country, but remember passionately my home village, Chalgrove in Oxfordshire, England. My favourite friends would include several shipmates I am in close contact with who served with me while in the British Royal Navy ..going back a fair bit.
There is also the silence of my age, too full of wisdom for the tongue to utter it - in words intelligible to those who have not lived-the great range of my life.
Vest.GSM, LSGCM, WM, B/PM, ITM, UNM, K-N M, EOW M, Asia- PAC M. ROYAL NAVY 25yrs, Retired.